Clothes-line support.



J. G. MIUHAUD. CLOTHES LINE SUPPORT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 21, 1909.

Patented Mar. 1, 1910.

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JOHN C. MICHAUD, 01 SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

CLOTHES-LINE SUPPORT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ldar. it, 19ft).

Application filed May 21, 19139. Serial No. 497,532.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that L JOHN C. hirer-ram), a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Marsachusetts, have invented certain new and useful .lmprovements in Clothes-liine Supports, which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to appliances adapted to be mounted on a porch or balcony of an apartment house, more especially, for supporting in horizontal arrangement and parallelism a plurality of clothes lines of suitable length, all of which are bodily movable on independent supports therefor whereby they may be all closely located inwardly, or near the balcony to enable a per-- son to hang clothes thereon to be dried,-it then being easy accomplishmentto move the several clothes lines outwardly and away from the balcony and to have them in such separation as may be desirable to afford adequate drying spaces between them.

The invention consists in the combination or arrangement of parts and the construction of certain of the parts all substantially as hereinafter described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and set forth in the claims.

In the drawings :-Figure 1 is a plan view of the clothes line support represented as connected to, and extended horizontally and outwardly from suitably distant posts of an apartment house balcony; Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the same; Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view as taken vertically on the line 33, Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing in separated relations a portion of one of the tubular and slotted track bars and supporting bracket therefor and one of the clothes line carriers.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all of the views.

In the drawings, A A represent a pair of brackets, which may be produced as castings having attachment lugs 64 a for connection with opposite posts 00 m which may form part of the balcony structure of an apartment house, each bracket having a substantially rectangular obliquely arranged socket therein for the reception with a close driving fit of one of the track bars B, the pair of which are arranged horizontally in parallelism and extending suitably far outwardly beyond the balcony.

Each track bar is preferably produced of thin metal of a tubular form having at its inner edge a longitudinal slotway (Z with inturned lips j" at opposite sides of such way, and C represents the carrier blocks provided in suitable number on both of the track bars connected to and extending between opposite pairs of which are the clothes lines D D.

The preferred form of each of the car riers O is such as more clearly represented in Figs. 3 and at wherein it is perceived that each comprises a block or body having a neck portion 9 and inner and outer shoulders h and z for engagement with the edges of the inturned lips f j which are at opposite sides of the slotway within which the neck portion is disposed; and each carrier block has a member j,--here shown as in the form of a hook,-whereby theline D is attached to the block. The carrier blocks are freely and independently slidable along the track ways provided by the track bars. It will therefore be seen that the distance between the various clothes lines D, in a horizontal plane, may be varied at will and it is in this independent movement of the clothes lines with relation to each other that very important advantages of the invention reside. For instance, two of the clothes lines may be so widely separated as to sup port a blanket, sheet, or other large article between them, while upon the contrary, the lines may be moved so closely together as to form a grid upon which smaller articles of clothing may be placed without the necessity of using clothes pins. Liability of the displacement of any of the carrier blocks from the ends of the track bars is prevented by stop pins as represented in Fig. 1, and by dotted lines in Fig. 3,the representation of these stop pins being omitted in Fig. 2.

By reason of the oblique positioning of the track bars, as represented in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, the carrier blocks C G are clownwardly and inwardly inclined toward each other to accord with the lines of draft or strain on the clothes line which when weighted by the clothes hung thereon is more or less as represented by the arrows in conjunction with the dotted line 61* in Fig. 2; and thus binding or cramping of the carrier blocks in their engagements with the track bars is avoided, and the easy sliding movement may be insured even when each line is quite heavily hung with wet clothes.

In making use of this clothes line support and drier, a pole will be provided whereby the washer-woman may, by a hook or suitable provision thereon, draw the lines, some, or all, inwardly closely to the building for location to permit the convenient hanging of the clothes thereon, such pole being thereafter utilized for forcing the lines and the carriers with which they are connected to their outward positions and separated relations.

I claim 1 A clothes-line support consisting of two parallel horizontally arranged trackbars and opposite pairs of carriers, slid-ably engaged with said track-bars, having members for the connection of clothes lines therewith,and the carriers slidably engaged with each track bar being independent and disconnected one with another.

2. A clothes-line support consisting of two parallel horizontally arranged tubular track bars each having an inwardly opening longitudinal slot-way with intnrned lips at the opposite sides thereof and opposite pairs of carrier blocks, each comprising a neck for disposition in the slot way, an inner shoulder for engagement with the said inturned lips, a shoulder outside of the neck for engagement with external opposite portions of the track-bar adjacent its slotway, and a member projecting beyond the latter shoulder for the connection of a clothes line therewith.

8. In a device of the character described, a pair of brackets for connection with opposite posts of a structure, each having a rec tangular obliquely arranged socket therein, tubular track bars arranged horizontally in parallelism having an end of each engaged in the opening of one of said brackets and of a tubular torni substantially rectangular in cross section, having at its inner edge a longitudinal slotway with inturned lips at opposite sides of such way and carrier blocks having sliding engagements with the slotted trackways, each comprising a neck portion, inner and outer shoulders for engagement respectively with the inturned lips and external portions of the track bars adja cent their slot-ways, and hooks for the connection therewith of lengths of clothes-lines, said opposite airs of carrier blocks and the opposite pair of t 'ackways with which they are respectively engaged being dmvnwardly and inwardly inclined toward each other for the purpose explained.

Signed by me at Springfield, Mass, in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN G. MICHAUD. lVitnesses 7M. S. BnLLows, G. R. DRISCOLL. 

